1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to vaults, or strong rooms generally and, more particularly, to a novel system for providing fresh air and/or food to a person or persons who may be trapped in such vaults, which system is integral with the vault door, which uses a number of components already existing in conventional locking means used in many vault doors.
2. Background Art
Some provision must be made in a vault installation for providing fresh air to a person or persons who may be trapped in a vault as a result of a burglary or even by accident. In most cases, once the door of such a vault has been closed and the locking mechanism activated, it cannot be opened again for some predetermined period of time. Also, there is usually no provision for opening such a door from the inside. Accordingly, provision must be made to provide fresh air, and, in some cases, food or liquid to person(s) trapped in a locked vault. Of course, the means for providing fresh air must be activatable by the person(s) within the vault, since their plight may not be discovered for some time.
Heretofore, attempts to address this problem have involved systems employing various types of tubes, sometimes with fresh air blowers, extending through the walls of vaults, which systems are activatable by various means by the person(s) inside the vaults. A substantial limitation of all such systems is that they are installed through the walls of the vaults, sometimes in the area of the door jambs, thus making retrofitting to existing vaults extremely difficult, since the walls and jambs are reinforced against forcible entry. In some cases, also, the walls or jambs must be thickened in the areas of the tubes passing therethrough to maintain the required security and/or fire rating of the vault, thereby increasing the difficulty of retrofitting to existing vaults and, in many cases, decreasing the volume of the vaults which would otherwise be available for use and decreasing the flexibility of locating internal safety deposit boxes or other internal equipment. With many such known systems, the means to activate the system is cumbersome and difficult. All such known systems are relatively expensive.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide a vault ventilator system which may be installed in the door of the vault.
It is an additional object of the invention to provide such a system that employs a number of components already used in vault doors.
It is a further object of the invention to provide such a system that can be easily retrofitted to existing vaults.
It is another object of the invention to provide such a system that is easily activatable and simply and economically manufactured.
An additional object of the invention is to provide such a system the installation of which does not require a decrease in the internal volume in the vault.
Other objects of the present invention, as well as particular features and advantages thereof, will be elucidated in, or be apparent from, the following description and the accompanying drawing figures.